CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) searched the house of Arvind Mayaram who served as the finance secretary during the UPA era and was recently seen in Rahul Gandhi’s yatra. He is currently the Economic advisor of Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and the Vice Chairman of CM’s Rajasthan Economic Transformation Advisory Council.

CBI has accused Mayaram of illegally extending the UK-based firm’s De La Rue International Ltd contract supplying exclusive colour shift security thread in 2012 by three years. He reportedly neither obtained the mandatory home ministry clearance nor informed the then-finance minister. “The CBI enquiry also revealed that Anil Raghbeer, signatory of the contract agreement from De La Rue, has received Rs 8.2 crore from offshore entities apart from the remuneration paid by De La Rue in 2011”, highlighted Swarajya Mag.

Home Ministry banned the company in 2010 as it did not meet the quality parameters. The former finance secretary overlooked this aspect too while extending the contract. “It is also to be noted that De La Rue has failed to secure any new contracts for the supply of currency paper or security threads and security holograms since 2016”, the Swarajya Mag report states.

A preliminary enquiry was launched by CBI on the basis of the complaint filed by the Chief Vigilance Officer of the Finance Ministry’s Department of Economic Affairs (DEA). The agency also registered an FIR (First Information Report) before initiating action.

Mayaram is a 1978-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre. He is the son of the late Indira Mayaram who was a senior Congress leader and an ex-minister between 1998 and 2002 in Ashok Gehlot’s government. He is known for his proximity to Congress and its leaders, particularly ex-Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Mayaram served in DEA when Chidambaram headed Finance Ministry between 2005 and 2008. He was posted in the Finance Ministry again in 2012 when Chidambaram became the Finance Minister. He was the additional secretary and subsequently the special secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development from 2008 to 2012.

He was given the responsibility of managing MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), UPA’s flagship scheme. He was promoted as secretary of the DEA in 2013. With the Modi government coming to power, he was transferred out of the ministry and made the Tourism Secretary. A fortnight later he was transferred again to the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

His close ties with the Congress establishment are cited as the reason for his rise in the echelons of power. Indira Mayaram, his mother, was elected twice on a Congress ticket from Rajasthan’s Sanganer assembly constituency. She held several posts in the first Ashok Gehlot government and was believed to be a Gehlot loyalist.

President of the Rajasthan Mahila Congress and chairman of the Nehru Youth Board are other posts Indira Mayaram held. She was a protege of late Congress leader N.D Tiwari and senior leaders like Uma Shankar Dixit and Govardhana Reddy mentored her in the party. Her father Jugal Kishore Chaturvedi was also a Congress minister in the 1950s. Interestingly, both mother and son were named in a land fraud case in 2011.

Recently he was seen in the Rajasthan leg of Gandhi’s Bharat ‘Jodo’ (Todo) Yatra. As expected Congress jumped to his defense. “A former RBI Governor walks in Bharat Jodo Yatra, BJP attacks him. A retired Army Gen does, he’s maligned. Now a former Finance Secretary, who joined, is booked by the CBI. Modi’s FDI policy-Fear, Defamation & Intimidation- is at work here. This is the mindset of a coward. But BJY will roll on”, tweeted Jairam Ramesh.

There appears to be more than what meets the eye and the possibility of Congress defending the ex-bureaucrat to save their leaders, whose instructions he was probably following, cannot be ruled out.

(Featured Image Source: Congress’ Twitter Account)